ValuJet Crash Shifts Focus
To Safety at Start-Up Firms

By

Jeff Cole and

Andy Pasztor Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 13, 1996 1:51 a.m. ET

The crash that killed 109 people aboard a ValuJet Airlines DC-9 near Miami Saturday focuses attention on a broader, and highly intractable, problem in modern air travel: As the number of flights grows sharply, so, probably, will the number of fatal crashes.

If the problem is left unchecked, experts say, within a decade catastrophic accidents like ValuJet's are likely to occur somewhere in the world about twice a month. Federal safety...